Not surprisingly, there is yet more propaganda about the two measles deaths in Pennsylvania. This one is being spread by Sharyl Attkisson - again, not a surprise, who is saying that the Coroner’s office currently has zero reported cases where measles is the immediate cause of death.
Of course, that isn’t the whole story.
Why Are There Zero Reported Cases of Measles at the Coroner’s Office in Lancaster?
It appears that the coroner in Lancaster County has said quite a bit more.
“Lancaster County’s coroner, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, said Tuesday that “no measles deaths were handled by our office,” though the office was investigating the death of an infant who tested positive for measles and died because of a ruptured spleen. The investigation is ongoing, he said.
He also pointed out that there could be several reasons for the difference between the state’s and the coroner office’s numbers. First, the coroner may not yet have received information about the “measles-associated” deaths. Second, it could be that patients who were severely sick may have been treated at a specialized facility outside of the county. A death in such a case would be handled by that county’s coroner.”
Lancaster County coroner’s records don’t add clarity to 2 Pa. deaths tied to measles
So, it is not that the Lancaster County Coroner has the two patients who died and is not classifying them as measles deaths, as Sharyl Attkisson states.
The Lancaster County Coroner does not even have the two patients who died with measles!
What he does have is “an infant who tested positive for measles and died because of a ruptured spleen.”
Is that another measles death in Pennsylvania?
Sure, a ruptured spleen is not a common complication of having measles, but could the infant have had a rare condition that made them susceptible to splenic rupture, and having measles made it much worse?
Mostly, know that these posts about the coroner’s office does not mean that the two deaths in Pennsylvania were not a result of their having measles.
“Died With” vs “Died From/Because Of”
The whole “died with” vs “died from/because of” is an anti-vaccine trope created during COVID to try to downplay how many people were dying because they were sick with COVID.
Sure, sometimes it is a very important distinction if someone died with vs. from something.
For example, if you are driving home from your doctor’s office after getting diagnosed with COVID and you get into a car accident and drown after driving into a lake. In this example, you would have died from drowning, but likely would also have been noted to have COVID. Your cause of death, of course, would not be COVID though.
On the other hand, consider that if you have measles and then develop pneumonia or encephalitis and die. The complication was the primary reason you died, but you really died because you were sick and had measles. You did not die ‘with’ measles.
COVID infection + fatal car crash = died with COVID, not from it, as COVID didn't cause the crash
Measles → encephalitis → death = died from measles, as measles caused the fatal encephalitis
Person with severe chronic lung disease → gets influenza → viral pneumonia → death, died from influenza, as flu initiated the fatal sequence
In the last example, anti-vaccine influencers try to move this to the ‘died from severe chronic lung disease’ with influenza, but that’s not how it works. With a contributing condition, flu, COVID, or measles, etc., will still be the underlying cause of death.
Now, while most of us just use “with” and “from” interchangeably, as we probably aren’t going to mention a condition if it wasn’t related to the person’s death, if you are being a stickler, only use “with” if it in no way contributed to their death.
What else?
Know that some of this misinformation is coming from inside Lancaster!
Josh Parsons is the County Commissioner in Lancaster and on the day that it was announced that there were two measles deaths in his county, instead of working to get people vaccinated and protected, he is playing the just asking questions game, creating confusion and promoting misinformation.
The real question?
Why aren’t more people in his county vaccinated and protected?
And what is he doing to help stop this outbreak before more people get sick and die?
The kid tests positive for measles, and the coroner says the immediate cause of death is traumatic rupture of the spleen. Measles can cause significant splenomegaly sometimes. I can only see a few plausible scenarios:
1. Underlying condition causes splenomegaly, measles infection worsens it, spleen ruptures
2. .Measles causes severe splenomegaly, spleen ruptures
3. Measles isn't doing anything. Someone drop kicks the baby, spleen ruptures.
In all three scenarios, the baby dies from a ruptured spleen. In #3, by far the least likely scenario, the baby dies "with" measles. In both #1 and #2, which are both exponentially more likely than #3, the baby has a ruptured spleen, but dies "from" measles.